20th Anniversary of the UNESCO’s bioethics programme - "The role of UNESCO in bioethics for the next 20 years”

A roundtable organized in Paris, on 6 September 2013, will bring together internationally renowned bioethics specialists to discuss, in public, for more than two hours, UNESCO’s achievements in the realm of Bioethics over the last twenty years, and the role that the Organization should play in this field within the framework of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Commemorating the 20th anniversary of UNESCO’s bioethics programme and the creation of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC), this event, which will be opened by the Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for Social and Human Sciences, Ms. Pilar ALVAREZ-LASO, will be held immediately after the closing of the 8th session of the Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee (IGBC).

This roundtable will allow participants to discuss the successes of UNESCO’s activities in the field of bioethics. It aims to bring into focus the most important challenges in bioethics – both those arising from the spectacular progress of science and those more persistent challenges relating to respecting individual rights (rights to information, privacy, bodily integrity, equitable access to health care), within a framework of solidarity.

The discussion, which will last a little more than two hours, should suggest ways to help ensure that UNESCO Bioethics activities are both relevant and lead to lasting impact for the benefit of people in the coming years.

In addition to the current Chairpersons of the IBC and IGBC (Professors Stefano SEMPLICI and Yongyuth YUTHAVONG), and those in charge of the UNESCO’s Programme for Bioethics, numerous renowned specialists will be at UNESCO on this occasion to share their experiences and perspectives.

Among them are:

• Prof. Nouzha GUESSOUS, Moroccan Researcher and International Consultant on Human Rights and Bioethics; Chairperson of IBC from 2005 to 2007;

• Prof. John HARRIS, British philosopher and bioethicist Director of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester (United-Kingdom), engaged on the challenging topic of enhancement;

• Ms Genoveva KEYEUX is a biologist, with a Master’s and PhD degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Louvain and Montpellier, respectively. She worked for over 30 years as Professor and Researcher in human molecular genetics at the Javeriana and the National Universities in Bogotá (Colombia).

• Prof. Georges KUTUKDJIAN, Lebanese philosopher and social anthropologist; Former Director of the UNESCO’s Division of Philosophy, Human Sciences and Ethics of Science and Technology until December 2001; Secretary-General of the IBC (1993-1995) and Executive Secretary of the World Commission of the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST); Rapporteur of the IBC Drafting Group of the “International Declaration on Human Genetic Data” (2002-2003);

• Sir Michael G. MARMOT, Director of the International Centre for Health and Society (United-Kingdom); a leading voice on the social determinants of health;

• Ms Michèle STANTON-JEAN, Québec Government Representative within the Permanent Delegation of Canada to UNESCO; Canadian Deputy Minister of Health (1993-1998) and Chairperson of the IBC from 2002 to 2005;

• Prof. Henk TEN HAVE, Director of the Center for Healthcare Ethics at Duquesne University of Pittsburgh (U.S.A.) and Founding member of the International Association for Ethics in Education (IAEE); Former Director of UNESCO’s Division of Ethics of Science and Technology (2003-2010);

• Dr Aissatou TOURÉ, Immunologist and Researcher at the Pasteur Institute, Dakar (Senegal); Member of the Senegalese Health Research Council and Member of the IBC since 2006.

This roundtable, open to the public, will include simultaneous translation into the six working languages of UNESCO, and will be webcast live.

To access the Webcast in the language you want, please find the relevant links below: